A Very Ninja Easter
by Kirishtu
Summary: Second in the Very Ninja series. Got bored at work and this is what came out. Drabble, really.


Originally posted on aff 2008-03-23

Under normal conditions, Kakashi would be nowhere near the Academy. Under normal conditions, he'd be sparring with Sasuke – or fucking Sasuke – until the younger Uchiha could no longer move without uttering a whimper of agonizing pain. Ever since Iruka had been murdered, Kakashi had done two things: he'd stopped going to wherever Iruka used to frequent and he'd begun screwing Iruka's murderer. Perhaps it was –because– Sasuke was Iruka's murderer that Kakashi was inclined to bed the younger man, or perhaps it was Kakashi's own form of revenge. The jounin shrugged absently and looked over at the reason why he was standing in the woods behind the Academy. A few words and he was putty in the Rokudaime's hands. Of course, Naruto knew exactly what buttons to push to make all his friends – even Sasuke – obey him.

It helped that he had Kyuubi too.

But Kakashi had been asked to do this – a fact that made him feel childishly proud – and he'd given in because Naruto had said he used to help Iruka do this all the time. Sneaky little bastard. So Kakashi had spent the better part of this Sunday morning – he'd actually gotten up around four so he could be sure he'd be on time even with his stop by the memorial stone and Iruka's grave – hiding hard-boiled, painted eggs, plastic eggs, and candy and toyed henged as eggs among leaves and tall grass for this little event for the Academy. Naruto had somehow gotten the children and their parents to show up today and told them all about what goodies were hidden out there in the woods. The older kids – Iruka's former students – had all had a moment of silence before they began. With the children sufficiently distracted by eggs and candy, Naruto gestured to Kakashi and the pair left the Academy for the forest outside Konoha.

Kakashi's eye went wide when he saw all the jounin and a few chuunin gathered in a clearing outside the village. Naruto shoved Kakashi into the group and grinned far too conspiratorially for the jounins' liking.

"Since I knew you would all be pissed at me if I didn't let you go play in the woods, Sakura and I designed an egg hunt that'd be fun for all." Naruto said as the rose-haired woman came forward carrying a box of plastic, coloured eggs.

"This is stupid," Sasuke whispered. Kakashi elbowed him in the ribs. Hard.

Naruto continued as though he hadn't heard others agreeing with Sasuke's statement. "Each egg has a colour that matches an egg out there. The egg out in the forest has a prize inside it. You can even steal each other's eggs to get more prizes."

"There are rules," Sakura added. "No weapons and no jutsus meant for battle. It's a game, not a war."

"But you can defend your egg with traps and henges." Naruto said as he handed out the eggs. Kakashi stared at the blue plastic egg in his palm. What the hell did Naruto and Sakura plan? It was the intrigue that got most of the jounin interested in the game. When he looked over at Sasuke, and Sasuke's egg, he noticed something interesting. He waited until Naruto gave the order to begin and lingered long enough to get a chance to talk to the blonde Rokudaime alone.

"You learned your sneakiness from Iruka, didn't you?" Kakashi asked. His answer was a brilliant but sad smile.

"I learned a lot of things from Iruka. But I learned that not all prizes are easily won over, Kakashi, from you. This game is meant to teach them – us – that though we can survive on our own, we need our Other. We need the one that matches us. Because they could be our salvation in the end."

Kakashi looked at his blue egg and noticed Naruto held an orange egg in his own hand. The silver-haired jounin blinked. "Kyuubi's out there, huh?"

"Who do you think hid the matching eggs?" Naruto said with a smile.

"Are there really eggs hidden our there?"

"There are now."

Kakashi laughed and bolted after the Rokudaime, ready now to finally seek out his match. He still loved Iruka, would never stop loving Iruka, but he understood Naruto's message.

He would never, ever forget, but it was time to move on.

It was time to live again.


End file.
